How to add custom data source to GeoServer WMS service?

I'm installing GeoServer as a WMS server to cooperate with OpenLayers.

The trouble is that I have to use 3rd-party tile source which is provided through web service. So I guess I have to tweak GeoServer to fetch tile image from 3rd-party server and response to OpenLaye开发者_高级运维rs request.

Is this idea correct? What should I do to accomplish that?

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

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You need to write a GeoTools datastore and then add that to GeoServer by dropping the jar into the WEB-INF/lib directory.

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If the 3rd party tiles are provided as a WMS, then you need GeoServer cascading

GeoServer has the ability to proxy a remote Web Map Service (WMS). This process is sometimes known as Cascading WMS. Loading a remote WMS is useful for many reasons. If you don’t manage or have access to the remote WMS, you can now manage its output as if it were local. Even if the remote WMS is not GeoServer, you can use GeoServer features to treat its output (watermarking, decoration, printing, etc).